Guardian Prize 26,806 by Puck

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Another characteristically witty offering from Puck, with lots of story-telling surfaces.

As usual, I solved this in the company of Timon and my wife (aka Mrs B) and I am indebted to them both for assistance in not just solving the puzzle but also in parsing the wordplay.  I am particularly indebted to Timon for analysing the arithmetic in 23 down.  Many thanks to Puck for the entertainment.

completed grid
Across
1 MINARET OF JAM Ordered fireman to preserve world heritage site (7,2,3)
*(FIREMAN TO), JAM (preserve).  No, I hadn’t heard of it either.  It’s in Afghanistan.
9 COUNT Noble matter (5)
Double definition.
10 BALLYMENA Ruddy stag party members start to arrive in Irish town (9)
BALLY MEN A(rrive).
11 OVERRUN Porn content extended to go beyond agreed limit (7)
The only explanation I can come up with is (p)OR(n) = O(ver)R(un).
12 MONSTER Beast in beret’s no musical backing (7)
Hidden and reversed in “beret’s no musical”.
13 STRAWBERRY Sort of fields amongst high waters by rivers (10)
*(WATERS BY), RR.  Nicely allusive definition (to the Beatles song, in case anyone missed the reference).
15 ESPY Spot? Yes, essentially a mole (4)
(Y)E(S) (“essentially”), SPY (a mole).  Arguably the “a” in the clue is there only for the surface reading.
18, 22 PAPA WESTRAY “Father, we have sinned” — last two leaving one of the Orkney Islands (4,7)
PAPA WE STRAY(ed).  My wife and I had the pleasure of visiting Orkney in 2014, although we didn’t get as far as this particularly remote island.
19 JET-SETTERS Jumbo crossword compilers? They’re often 5 (3-7)
A simple charade of JET and SETTERS.
22   See 18
24, 20 SWINDLE SHEETS Repair of these second houses still to be detailed in expense accounts (7,6)
WINDLES(s) (de-tailed) in *(S(econd) THESE).  “Houses” is the envelope indicator.  Chambers has this hyphenated, but I must admit that it was new to me.
25 ALLOWANCE Concession from NATO? For one, that hurt (9)
OW for I in ALLIANCE.
26 UNCUT Letter from Greece returning share in full (5)
NU (rev), CUT.
27 TOWER HAMLETS Play set in ultimately the worst off part of London (5,7)
HAMLET in *(WORST (the)E).  Nearly an & lit, because the borough of Tower Hamlets is at or near the top of most indices of deprivation in London.
Down
1 MOUSETRAP Timid person tentatively starting to blame inferior cheese (9)
MOUSE, T(entatively), RAP.
2 NUTBROWN Hazel‘s cooking won’t burn (8)
*(WON’T BURN).  Again Chambers has this hyphenated: perhaps Puck uses a different dictionary?
3 RABIN Ex-PM reading book in shower? (5)
B in RAIN.  Yitzhak Rabin was a Nobel Peace Prize-winning Israeli politician and Prime Minister who was assassinated in 1995.
4 TELEMARKS TV scores for skiing moves (9)
TELE(vision), MARKS.  The name comes from a skiing manoeuvre first developed at Telemark in Norway.
5 FLYING Hurried up? (6)
Double definition, although I must admit that I initially considered this and then rejected it as being too remote: can someone who is flying said to be “hurried”?  I suppose so.
6 ALERT Playing Real, gets little time on the ball (5)
*REAL, T.
7 ACROSS Type of clue with answer X (6)
A CROSS.  Brilliant.
8 FAIRLY Pretty mechanical? Just Bottom, enthralled by Puck, perhaps (6)
(mechanica)L in FAIRY.  Puck and Bottom are of course fairies in A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a fairy; Bottom is a human (“a mechanical”) with whom Titania, the queen of the fairies, falls in love as the result of a magic potion administered by Puck.
14 EVERY INCH All in? Completely! (5,4)
I think this is just a charade of ALL and IN, but it’s superbly economical.
16 SHELDUCKS Some of those 5 get led astray? What a pity about that (9)
*LED in SHUCKS.
17 ATTITUDE Pose as model in topless play (8)
T in (L)ATITUDE.  T here is from the Ford Model-T.
18 PAWPAW Fruit women put in babyfood as winter starts (6)
W in PAP, A(s) W(inter).
20   See 24 across
21 BROWSE Be a surfer, initially wearing surprisingly sober clothes (6)
W(earing) in *SOBER.
23 SALVO Bombardment of note across area 11 by 5 (5)
A, LV (55 or 11 x 5 in Roman numerals!) in SO.
24 SPERM Some “yards per minute” swimmers (5)
Hidden in “yards per minute”.

*anagram

33 comments on “Guardian Prize 26,806 by Puck”

  1. Impressed with Minaret of Jam and pleased I didn’t dream it up! Thanks to Bridgesong for the details and Puck for an interesting few hours.

  2. Thanks bridgesong. A testing hour, with much head-scratching over 11A (agree with you on that) and 8D (I toyed with ‘air’ inside ‘fly’) even though the answers declared themselves early. Didn’t known but liked the minaret and (near the very end) SWINDLE SHEETS. Thanks Puck.

  3. Thanks to Puck and bridgesong. Lots of terms new to me but solvable from the clues (and with help from Google): MINARET OF JAM, BALLYMENA, PAPA WESTRAY, TOWER HAMLETS, TELEMARKS, SHELDUCKS (my last in). For 8d Bottom is not a fairy but a human (referred to as one of the mechanicals) who becomes Titania’s lover. The term is needed to get the letter “l” at the bottom of “mechanical” and takes on double duty – very cleverly done.

  4. Thanks bridgesong. Another enjoyable challenge from Puck. I’m still not sure about 11a though, am I missing something?

  9. As ACD @3 points out, Bottom is not himself a fairy; I’ve amended the blog.

    I think that molonglo @6 has accurately parsed OVERRUN; I don’t know why I found it so difficult to be sure.

  10. Thanks to all three of you, bridgesong and to Puck for another lovely puzzle.

    SWINDLE SHEETS took the longest, because I didn’t know the expression but I liked it when I finally got there – a great surface, recalling the MPs’ expenses scandal.

    Another favourite clue was 8dn: I just love the way Puck references AMND whenever he can and I have absolutely no shame in quoting yet again his wonderful &lit from 25,704 [which I do whenever I can] because, for me, it’s up there with Araucaria’s classic Old Vicarage clue:
    ‘As I said in 15 27 4 23*: “Funny farm? The whole lot are dolts, boss!” (4,4,5,5,7,2)’
    [*A Midsummer Night’s Dream]

    I had exactly the same thought as crosser @7 re 5dn.

    Many thanks, as ever, to Puck – I loved it!

  11. This was a bit of a curate’s egg for me.

    There were some nice clues (though no outstanding ones) and some which I found a little loose.

    For instance I’m not sure about “Sort of fields” for “Strawberry” (there wasn’t even a question mark!). Also 5D’s “Hurried” for “Flying” was a bit of a stretch though there was a question mark this time.

    I’d never heard of “Swindle Sheets”, “Minaret of Jam” or “Telemarks” though they were all guessable from the word play eventually.

    Although I enjoyed the solve this didn’t seem up to the usual Puck standard. Perhaps I was having a bad day?

    Thanks to bridgesong and Puck.

  12. 24a/20d could also be seen as windles(s) inside s…… heet(an anagram of these) and s(second)

    Thanks to everyone

  13. Hands up anyone who confidently entered “Minaret of Jam” without having to look it up in a reference book or Google it!

  14. Thanks Puck and bridgesong et al.

    I had to google the Orkney Island, the World Heritage Site and the skiing move, and to check on Ballymena in the atlas. STRAWBERRY was the last in.

    SWINDLE SHEETS was new and a favourite along with JET-SETTERS, TOWER HAMLETS and SALVO.

  16. STRAWBERRY was my FOI. It surely refers to “Strawberry fields forever” by The Beatles.
    I liked this despite finding it rather hard and,sometimes, rather obscure- MINARET OF JAM anyone? Still, this was a prize puzzle!
    I finally got SWINDLE SHEETS but I’d never heard the expression before. Indeed,this held me up for quite a long time. It wasn’t until I got the brilliant LATITUDE that I realized what it must be.
    Overall,an enjoyable workout.
    Thanks Puck

  17. Peter@16: You’re right of course about STRAWBERRY and I’ve updated the blog.

    Picadillyjim@15: that is what I meant by a charade. all = EVERY and in = INCH. The whole expression means “completely”.

    Ernie@12: I prefer my parsing, because the use of the word “houses” suggests that all that follows the anagram indicator (“repair”) is the anagram fodder, which in this case includes an abbreviation.

  18. Eileen@10:
    I agree totally about the AMND references. A lovely one of his from some years ago was
    “I have set Titania’s crown amongst enchanted trees” (6)

  20. If I recall from last week, this took a while, but was ultimately rewarding. Of course, I had to google-check MINARET OF JAM, and I wound up combing a list of Irish towns to get BALLYMENA. I’m tickled pink that I parsed OVERRUN correctly. I officially now know enough about cricket to do British crosswords.

    SWINDLE SHEETS was the last one in, and again I had to Google-check it. I am no fan, by the way, of linked entries that cross each other.

    But there was lots else to like here, including FAIRLY, EVERY INCH, and PAPA WESTRAY (didn’t know the island, but the clue made me smile).

  22. This was quite tricky – just managed to finish it unaided on the train, but the unfamiliar SWINDLE SHEETS took some working out, and I’ve no idea why I’d heard of the MINARET OF JAM. All very enjoyable.

    Thanks to Puck and bridgesong

  23. [Eileen @21
    I can’t remember when I first came here (the earliest I have found through the search is early 2013, but I would have thought it was longer ago), but it was surprising how many of the names of posters on the thread that you linked to were unfamiliar to me – how sad that they are no longer around!]

  24. Hi muffin – I go back to February 2008 and I’ve said many times that I bless the day when I quite accidentally discovered 15².

    I was surprised, too, when looking at the comments. People come and go, for all sorts of reasons and then, sometimes, they come back again, which is great.

    I’m struck by the number of new commenters we’ve had recently, which is also great.

    [I can’t imagine that I will ever drop out. 😉 ]

  28. Thanks Puck and bridgesong

    Only did the puzzle this morning and found plenty to like in it. Was one of those puzzles that mixed getting the answer from the wordplay and (as in MINARET OF JAM, BALLYMENA and MOUSETRAP) had to look them up to confirm that they were valid answers with others where the answer presented (like ALLOWANCE and TOWER HAMLETS) and then had to parse it later. Then there was SALVO that I needed to come here for the arithmetic lesson !

    Finished in the SE corner with ATTITUDE, SHELDUCKS and the tricky UNCUT as the last few in.

    A good battle of wits.

  29. I’m glad someone else (bruce @28) found UNCUT tricky – although I’m very familiar with the Greek alphabet, we weren’t certain that this was what was meant by “a letter from Greece”, and this held us up for a long time. When the penny dropped (for me alone, my partner having given up), the C of UNCUT gave me SHELDUCKS, whose D gave me my LOI, SWINDLE. A hard slog, but well worth it.

    Eileen, I echo muffin’s sentiments – you’ve become the personification of this site for my partner and me. Whenever we’re stumped by a clue or unable to parse a solution, we say “we’ll just have to ask Eileen” 🙂

  30. Surprised that no one has mentioned PAPA WESTRAY’s claim to fame. Its airport is one end of the shortest scheduled flight in the world – to neighbouring Westray – with a distance of 1.7 miles, and a flight time of 2 minutes. It must also be one of the smallest islands anywhere to have a scheduled service.

  31. Thanks bridgesong and Puck.

    Thoroughly enjoyable and – I’m smug to say – fully parsed as well (including the cunning SALVO).

    I recall that you’re right G Larson – but subject to the wind direction, failing which flight time can be up to 10 mins.

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